Wednesday, April 20, 2011

We've been busy this spring trying to get our garden in order. We don't have much in the way of natural soil here so we have to make our soil. We've been using contained raised beds for years but several years ago the system we had gave out. For the next few years we made "lasagna beds" but found that we lost a lot of square footage at the top of each bed so this year we are making a return to wooden raised beds. Chris and the boys generously made me four of 4'x6' beds. One is for Marissa's strawberries, one we have in spring crops, one has row cover over it for tomatoes (it is still 4 weeks early for our growing season), one is still in process, and they are making a 3'x6' one for rhubarb and what ever else might fit with that. The other beds will continue to be uncontained for another year. Those will be home to pole beans, peas, dry beans (black and red), and onions. Here are some pictures of the garden as it is today.

Scott is updating our orchard, making the wells bigger for the growing needs of the trees and doing the annual fix on the trenches that allow water to flow from one tree well to the next.

I've still got a lot of work to do. I'm determined to get my raspberries moved to where I want them but have yet to improve the soil where they are going. I also need to get a fence system up to contain the raspberries. They get really tall and then lean, making it difficult to get in to harvest. My blackberries have been neglected for years and it is time to tend them a bit.

All said we are having a great spring (minus the wind) and enjoying spending so much time outdoors.

Sorry there is no rhyme or reason for the order of the pictures. I have no idea how to do this blog thing, which is why I don't post (well, that and time). :-)

4 comments:

NICE! How exciting! Where did you get the metal fencing type thing you have in for your peas to climb on (with the large squares) and what are you using to clip the row cover onto the PVC pipe hoops? Everything looks wonderful!

Oh, I am sitting here exhausted from three days of cattle moving, sorting, hunting and more moving. Looking at your garden pictures, though, makes me want to get out and move on to the next thing on the spring list - GARDENING!!! We think we're going to go back to our regular mode of gardening instead of the square foot method. I don't know what the best thing is, but I do know I am looking forward to fresh veggies!! My long term wish is still to have a nice hoop house with veggies year round - or at least almost year round. Until then, I will be content with my little plot and viewing other plots on the blogosphere!!